


Beating Steady

by stolideux



Series: Heartbeats [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, BAMF Tony Stark, BAMF Women, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I don't know what else to put here, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Avengers (2012), Tony Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-01 13:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18801214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stolideux/pseuds/stolideux
Summary: Being a prisoner of an Afghan Terror group is probably the worst thing that could happen if you're an active soldier.  But then again, nothing beats having to crack open the chest of a certain eccentric genius and saving his life.





	1. It must be the lights

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there and look I'm back with my usual shit. It's been a since I last wrote anything of value and I wanted to take a break from my usual crossover stories and decided to write with a OC as a main character. I've always wanted to write Tony and I'm scared shitless because I love him and I want to give my portrayal of him justice. Also Endgame happened and I'm still not okay. 
> 
> Anywho, it's been forever so I know I'm rusty, so please go easy on me. I'm going to try my best to keep any mistakes to a minimum. LOL Or maybe I should try looking for a beta? 
> 
> Please enjoy!

It was the loud commotion that roused her from her turbulent slumber.  Steel grey eyes hazed with sleep flickered open.  She took not of her surroundings, the musty cave smell and the dark dimly light that a small make shift fire pit gives. She cautiously gets up, bare feet against the gold ground.  She opens keeps her ears peeled, the incoherent voices behind the steel door becoming louder and louder, she narrows her eyes trying to decipher the confusing mixture of languages that she couldn't begin to fathom.  

Only the words, 'Breathing' and 'Stark' was the only thing that she managed to get from the chaos behind those steel doors. She could have sworn she heard her name mentioned as well but then, she wasn't thrilled with that idea.  The voices grew louder and she instinctively backs away just in time for the door to open and man was pushed in.  She immediately approaches the man, ignoring her gut that screamed that maybe the man is one of them.  She moves to hold the man positioning herself between him and the armed men that spilled into her room -- cell (?).  She turns her attention to the man, he was around his mid 50's, bald with prominent laugh lines.  It must be the doctor in her that urged her to try and help and protect him despite the situation. She threw a nasty glare at the armed man, her eyes straining to the rest of them as they hauled something or someone into the her cell.  She narrows her eyes as a wave of cold dread as she watched them dropped the bundle into the metal table that had been in the middle the room.  The dread doubled when she sees that it was a man--bloodied and unconscious that the armed men had hauled in.  Her eyes darts away from the unconscious man and to the armed men, they were speaking once again in a language that she couldn't understand. 

          "They want you to keep this man alive." Her head snaps back to the older man, her brows furrowing.  "What?" She asks, she pursed her lips as she threw a man a questioning stare, demanding. 

          "They want you to keep this man alive, they need him." She bit her lip and stole a glance at her captors and spots the head honcho; Raza. She narrows her eyes as their eyes met, curbing the shiver that run behind her spine. She tore her eyes from the terrorist and glides towards the steel table, adept hand immediately settled on the man's carotid checking for a pulse.  It was there, but it was barely a flutter and rapidly declining.  A muttered curse escaped her lips as she turn once again to the armed men then to the older man behind her.  "Please pass me my bag. Right there by the cot." She asks, her voice becoming clipped as she composes herself. She glares at the armed men, to Raza and clenched her jaw.

           "I don't know what you monsters did this man, but if you want him to live I need supplies. Supplies I know you bastards have." She spits, grey eyes defiant. The stinging pain at the side of her face came not a second later.  Iron explodes her mouth and she glares in return.  "Just keep that man alive if you want to stay alive yourself." Raza hisses at her before storming out. 

 

 

 

           "How is this man alive?" She whispers as she pries the kevlar vest off the man's chest and exposing his mangled chest.  She surveys the man's chest, her mind cataloging all the information that she could get by just looking.  Though this wasn't the first time that she had seen injuries such as these, being a combat medic at a place such as Afghanistan, she had been exposed to cases such as these.  But this is the first time that she had seen someone somewhat cling to life despite the extent of these injuries.  

           "You would be surprised how resilient a human body can be." She pursed her lips, before she hands the man a pair of sterile gloves.  "I would need a second set of hands if we were to save this man's life."  

* * *

ONE MONTH BEFORE  
Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan 

 

           "How are you holding up Trevelyan? Excited to go home?" A smile graced her lips as she looked up from the screen of her laptop, gently folding the gadget. "You said it, I'm sick of all these sand it literally everywhere." Her smile evolves into a full blown grin as she reclined back to her chair, her grey eyes watching Callahan as he too took a seat on a second chair lying around.  

Lieutenant Eula Jean Trevelyan let out a sigh, she gazed at the open flap of her tent taking in the hustle and bustle of a military base, the same place that she been calling home for the last five years.  At thirty five, being a soldier had been a humbling experience.  She was a doctor by profession, a cardio-thoracic surgeon.  But serving in the military, it just felt right back then.  This would be her third and final tour before she hangs her uniform hopefully for good. 

            "So, two more weeks then?" Callahan mused, his dark eyes and stubbled cheeks crinkled into an easy smile.  "What do you plan on doing after you return to DC?" he pressed.  Eula looked pensive, she hadn't really thought about what she would be doing after her tour. She had been too caught up with the idea of going home and performing her duty as a combat medic that she hadn't reached the point after that.  She had begun receiving job offers already one being Metro General at New York.  And then there's her previous hospital back at Washington... But she still wasn't sure.  Maybe a vacation first at her mother's home country? 

            "Yeah, we just need to finish up the medical mission at Gulmira and then get the bosses off my back about preparing for Stark's weapon demonstration a  _month_ from now." Eula resisted the urge to roll her eyes.  Honestly, preparing for a weapon demonstration was not in her job description, but then the higher ups wanted her to be involved.  Sure, she'll follow orders but at that time and date, her main priority is the medical mission. 

            "Can't say the same thing as you Eula, I would have preferred being part of your troop but then..." Callahan shrugs, before chuckling. "I just want to get home to the missus and the boys. Jordan is beside herself with worry.  And I'm considering returning to San Antonio General myself."

Eula watched as her friend and co combat medic brighten after he told her about his little family. She had met the rest of the Callahans once in the past and they were lovely.  A soft pang resonated in her heart, as her eyes softened.  God, she just wants to go home. 

             "Trevelyan? Do you have a sec?" Eula's head suddenly snaps to the newcomer, her body straightening as she stood up and saluted. The newcomer nods and she drops her hand.  "I need to talk to you Trevelayan if you would." Eula eyes the older man curiously but follows him out of the tent but not before nodding at Callahan.  

             "I'll cut to the chase Trevelyan. I know you have been preparing for the deployment at Gulmira but we just received info of terror activity close the peninsula... The higher ups had two options, it's either we postponed it or add  additional troops for added security. You can guess that the the first option was never an option..."

Eula understood the concern, Gulmira had always been a hotpot for terrorist activity which is why the villagers living there always get caught up in skirmishes. It was a sad reality but at the moment they didn't have the resources yet to evacuated everyone.  Eula inwardly sighed, her mind running a thousand of thoughts as she walked across the base.  

 

 

It was pure chaos.  They didn't see them coming.  Eula watched helplessly as her fellow countrymen drop down like flies as they were bathed with hellish rain of bullets. She grips her rifle and return fire, ducking down just as she managed to hit a few of their attackers.  Her radio had been going haywire, mayday calls and status reports ratting near her ear.  'Five more minutes.' Five more minutes and the evac would be here.  She just needs to hold out until then. She crawls towards one of her comrades,  a male who was slumped down behind one of their humvees.  He was a young man, fresh out of training.  He was shaking as he gripped his bloodied leg.  Eula immediately fished out bandages from her pack and began to put pressure against the wound.  The silence of their surrounding unnerved Eula but still she continued to apply first aid,  she stops when she heard footstep crushing the hot hot sand.  "Stay down and don't move." She whispered harshly at the injured soldier who only nodded.  She slowly crawled back a few paces from where she was before and reloaded her rifle.  Slowly she turned to her side only to come face to face with a barrel of a gun.  She looked at the owner of the gun defiantly before a pain exploded on the side of her head and then nothing. 

* * *

 

              "I've removed all the shrapnel that I could but there's still more.  I can't hack deeper without the proper tools.  The remaining shrapnel would slice through his atrial septum at this rate." Frustration bubbled from Eula's gut.  She hated the fact that she had to operate on this man with minimum anesthesia,  she couldn't imagine what if they had someone else to operate on this man without any sedation.  Eula shivered,  she wouldn't want anyone to experience that amount of pain.  It was inhumane and just cruel.  She hope that she could have at least made the man not feel her hand prodding into his rib cage and digging around inside of him.  

              "How about using a magnet? Or rather an electromagnet." Eula raised an eyebrow at the man not expecting to hear something as obnoxious as a magnet.  "Hear me out.  Using an electromagnet would make a makeshift magnetic field to hold the remaining shrapnel in place and stop them from slicing through his heart." The older man explained.  Eula studied the man,  she could see how serious he was with the idea as ridiculous as it is in her ears.  There was so many things wrong with that idea to begin with; septic infection, allergic reaction and the list could go on.  Her eyes strayed towards the small lump of metals on the other side of room, she immediately assumed that the man was thinking of making the magnet from scarp metal.  Eula sighed,  she looked at her unconscious patient feeling helpless.  They were out of options,  she refuses to let this man die not when he had survived this far.  If a chunk of metal--magnet inside his chest would save his life... "Alright but you'll have to coach me with it alright?" Eula eventually relented.  When they get out of here and her patient decides to sue her.  Eula would want the ground to just gobble her up. 

 

               "Steady... Steady..." Eula bit her lip as she slowly lowered the magnet that the older man ( she really needs to ask him his name ) had made.  She felt her hand shaking as she secured the magnet in the middle of the man's chest where his sternum used to be. Even after the operation Eula wasn't still 100% sure about the effectiveness of this procedure. But they were already too deep in and the magnet was in, the only thing missing is to see if it would do its job.  She gingerly wrapped the man's chest with cloth bandages, disinfecting the incision area around the battery as much as she can.  At that point, there was nothing that they could do but wait. 

So when the third hour after the operation and the injured man remains alive and was actually stable, Eula and the older man had to sigh in relief.  Eula turns to the older man and gave him an exhausted smile.  "I never gotten around in asking your name and we  _just_ finished operating the most stressful operation in my entire career."  She let out a mixture of laughter and sob.  She was just so exhausted,  now that they were somewhat out of the wood,  the stress and exhaustion seeped into her bones and all she wanted to do now was to sleep. 

                "You can call me Yinsen."  Yinsen then reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.  Eula blinked,  looked at the sudden physical contact and smiled.  "Nice to meet you Yinsen, name's Eula Trevelyan." she gave the older man's hand a tentative squeeze before she hauls herself back to her feet and approached the still unconscious male that the two of them had painstakingly moved to her cot. 

                "Say Yinsen? Do you have any idea who this guy is why are the Ten Rings so hell bent in keeping him alive while it was so obvious that they were the reason that he was in this state."  Eula asked,  her steel grey eyes slowly studied the man's unconscious features.  He looked banged up and still quite dirty from all the grime and everything else.  Eula stopped,  she reached for a damp cloth and began wiping the man's face as gentle as she can. 

                "I'm surprised you didn't recognize him." Eula's brows furrowed. "What?"

                "You my lovely girl, you just operated and saved Tony Stark's life." 

She looked at the male once again, this time really looked.  There it was the unmistakable face of the billionaire weapons inventor. She had seen enough of him on television and magazines.

                "Huh... It must be the lights."

 

* * *

 

 


	2. What did you do to me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wakes up inside the Ten Ring's hideout with a magnet on his chest and meets Eula and Yinsen.

The first thing that he felt when he woke up was pain, then confusion and then a ringing in his ears. With a gasp, Tony Stark jolts awake, eyes darting around as he tries to get his bearings together. A groan escapes his lips as he shifts on whatever he was laying on until he felt something attached to his nose, with shaking fingers he pulls it out gasping as the tube just kept coming out of his nose and throws it somewhere the moment the rest of it was out. He looks around, his throat demanding water. He sees a metal cup by the side of his cot and reached only to miss and end up knocking it down the ground. He coughs again, slightly hunching over himself still reaching towards the table where another cup was. He shifted closer and closer until he could feel a tugging sensation on his chest, he ignores it.

             "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Big brown eyes snaps to the source, he throws the reflection of a man, older than him a look as he shaves on a piece of mirror etched on a wall. Tony rolled onto his back, his body feeling like it was made of led. He turns to his other side, what he saw stopped him. His eyes spots a car battery sitting on top of a table with copper wires running--connected towards him. ' _No. No. No!'_  Panic bubbles from the pit of his gut as he frantically grasps at the bandages, and began ripping it apart.  His chest burns with each movement as his breathing became labored.  A look of horror crossed his features as he finally uncovers his chest where a circular piece of metal was attached in the middle of his chest with wire running from it.  Tony couldn't wrap his head around this.  _What the fuck happened?_  He lets out a strangled sound before he collapsed back to his cot. He didn't move, didn't make any more noise as the events that had transpired before waking up in this place rushing back. 

                _'I was in Afghanistan, weapons demonstration, Obie convinced me. Rhodey was there... My Jericho missile. Oh God, this is so fucked up._ ' Tony wanted to scream, to cry and just break things but he couldn't, the amount of raging emotions in him hinders him from doing anything and left him feeling in confused and just... numb. 

This dark eyes looked at the second presence in the cave, his hand hovering over his chest not daring to touch it. Tony has so many question that he couldn't help but clenched his fist. He stares at the older man heavily, surely the man would give him answers. 

Tony was just about to open his mouth when out of the sudden, the steel door opens and a drenched woman was pushed in, another man, Tony assumed him to be one of their captors followed in and delivered a harsh kick on the woman's side.  Tony flinched, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from attracting attention.  The older man on the other hand rushed to the woman's side, pulling her into his arms and propping her up as she cough her lungs out.  If the circumstances were different, Tony might have done something but then... his eyes glanced at the car battery next to him and he sighed.  Instead he continues to watch the two other person with questioning eyes.  

             "I'm okay.  Just...geez did he really have to kick me?" The woman coughed, her eyes pained as she pressed a hand onto her side. Tony felt bad for a moment before he turns his attention away, his questions will have to wait for a while longer. 

 Tony stares at the slumbering woman. He studies her relaxed features despite the dimness of their cell, she was young probably in her early to mid-thirties and a pretty little thing too.  Tony hadn't realized that there we more of them in here, he had assumed that it was only him and the older man whom he had yet to know the name of.  For a moment, he had considered the idea that the older man was on of them--his captor but dismissed it the moment he saw that armed man who pushed this woman in here. 

Shakily, he paws at his chest, flinching when his touched it. He gives that offending material a withering glare before he looked at the older man.  "What did you do to me?" 

               "Oh, it's not me who should take all the credit." The man meets his eyes before it shifted towards the woman, slightly softening as he does so.  "What she did, she did it to save your life."  the older man replies, before reaching for something.  "I have seen injuries like this before. We call them the walking dead. Because it takes a week before the barbs to reach the vitals organs." he tosses a small glass bottle at Tony who caught them.  "Those were the most that she removed from your chest." Tony glanced at the woman and frowned.  "But there's still so much left that it's racing towards your atrial septum." Tony looks at the bottles content and suddenly felt sick.  There were so many and there's still more inside of him.  

               "Then what's this?" he gestures over his chest, dread slowly making down his spine. 

               "That is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery. Not my best work but it's doing it's job of keeping the remaining shrapnel from slicing into your heart."  Tony felt faint, at a different scenario he would probably be impressed with the idea and execution of the magnet, but knowing that it was  _in_  him and that any given moment that the battery tops, there's nothing stopping the remaining shrapnel from ripping his heart. 

Tony was snapped from his tumultuous thoughts when the woman groaned and slowly sat up. The billionaire watched her as she rubbed her eyes and blinked around. She gave their cell a tentative look around before their eyes met each other.  Her eyes were a unique shade of steel grey, a complete contrast to his dark chocolate ones.  There was an intensity in her gaze that Tony almost lost himself in to those orbs.  Then she smiled, her eyes shining as she glided closer to him but remained a full arm distance from where he was at. 

               "Hey! You're up. Good. Very good! At least now I know that the crazy shit that we did to save you worked. Please don't sue me."   Tony blinked at the rotor mouth that was woman,  he stared at her not knowing what to say.    She gave Tony an exhausted but still a bright smile before she moved to seat next to the older man.  

               "Are you alright? How's your side? Tender yes?" The woman shook her head as she smile dimmed. The older man was right, the woman was pretty much banged up, though how she could smile despite all of this... Tony has no fucking idea.  "I'm okay. Made of tougher stuff. I wouldn't be able to survive this long otherwise.  And I've been in here longer than you two."  Her grey eyes once again met Tony's before his widened.  How long had she been in here?  Tony wanted to ask, but chose not to. Instead, he refocused on his companions and away from the hubris that was rapidly forming in his mind. 

               "We met once you know, at a technical conference in Bern."  The three of them were seated across one another by the makeshift fire pit.  Tony's eyes furrows trying to recall ever meeting the other man. The woman on the other hand had shifted closer, her eyes were looking at them with obvious interest. 

               "I don't remember."

               "No you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand much less give a lecture on integrated circuits." The older man replies dryly, while the woman was biting her lip obviously trying to stop herself from laughing.  Tony grew quiet, once again transfixed at the woman.  

               "How about you sunshine? Have we met before?" Tony asks, curious. Then she looked at him with her wide eyes like a deer caught in the headlights.  She looked confused for a moment before her lips fell into a slight pout.  "Me? Uh, well. Aside from seeing you on television and magazines and seeing your name on the weapons and ammo the US Army uses. Other than that... never. Until now." she shrugs. Tony found himself wanting to know more about his companions and just when he was about to fire off a follow up question, their door once again opened and the armed men came flooding in. The three of them were hauled from their place and was forced to kneel on the ground.  Tony caught the familiar weapons their captor’s hands, his name clear against its smooth metal.  He glares at their captor, just as the older man urged him to move, the woman had her arms twisted behind her back. 

               “Come on, put your hands up.”

Tony tore his gaze from their captors and to his weapons.  “Those are my guns, how did they get my guns?” he hisses at the older.  One of the men steps out, he stalks towards their direction and closer to the woman’s, he looked at her before him and began speaking in litany that he couldn’t understand.  The older man then began.

               “He says, _Welcome Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.”_ Tony stopped, he grits his teeth as he met the man’s eyes defiantly.  “He wants you to build the missile.” He looks at the photograph that the man was pointing at.  “He wants the Jericho missile that you demonstrated.” How the fuck did they know about the Jericho? He has yet to launch it formally after the demonstration.  His mind played on that thought for a good moment before he looked at his captor – the head honcho and glared.

                “I refuse.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tony coughed, his throat stinging as he vomited water all over their cell’s ground. Wheezing, he leaned over the nearby table and coughed again. He could feel the woman’s hands rubbing circles on his back giving him the slightest comfort after being dunked repeatedly in water.  Maybe outright refusing their captor was a bad idea, hell it was definitely a shitty idea.  But he couldn’t allow his weapons—his own creation to fall to the wrong hands.  He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, his battery clutched tightly into his side. He hopes that the water didn’t damaged it in any way. 

                “You okay?” He looks at her before coughing again.  “Here.” She hands her a towel as she settles next to him.  Tony wipes his mouth and slid down, shifting to a comfortable position next to the woman.  “Can I?” she gestures at his chest as she looks at him with those grey eyes.  Tony nods, not trusting himself to not cough in her face.  “I just need to check the incision line and check for infections and everything.” She informs her as she gently prods around the raw skin around the magnet.

                “Got a name?” Tony asked. The woman looked at him with a smile before she reached for a pair of dog tags under her shirt.

                “Eula Trevelyan. Doctor by profession but I’m currently serving as a combat medic before I got tangled up with these assholes.” The woman—Eula scrunches her nose. Finally, Tony has the name of the person whom had saved his life.   “Nice to meet you Eula, call me Tony.” A pressed his lips together into a small smile, the first since he had woke up in this place.

 ...

It was probably because he had spent long time in the darkness of the cave that going out for the first time almost blinded him.  Tony and the older man slowly made their way out of the cave. Tony held his car battery close to his chest as he was pushed by one of his captors.  His eyes darts around, as he spots crates upon crates of what looks to be Stark Industries weapons.  Tony felt his heart raced, how did they get their hands on so much of his weapons?  The head honcho, Raza said something and Tony looked at his fellow prisoner to translate.  “He wanted to know what you think.” 

Tony scowled, he shoots Raza a withering glare. “I think you got a lot of my weapons.”

                 “He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile.”  Tony looks at the man like he grew another head.  There was no way.  No way is he going to create shit for their assholes.

                 “He says for you to start working immediately, and when you’re done, he will set you free.”

Tony looked at his captor and then to the older man. 

                  “No, he won’t.”

                  _“No, he won’t.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

He stared at the cackling fire in silence, face unreadable in contrast to the hurricane of emotions that was waging war inside of him.  The burning question of how these men, these terrorists has managed to get his hands into his weapons.  The same weapons that was used to kill his fellow countrymen, those soldiers that was with him in the Humvee.  Tony grits his teeth.  He was going to die there, in the middle of nowhere and not by his own accord.  And everything. And everything that he had worked hard on will be nothing.  The genius sighed, hunching forward as his eyes shut.

               “I’m sure they are looking for you, Stark.” He could feel the older man’s eyes on him.  He’s right though, Tony thought.  Rhodey would be looking for him.  But for how long?  That is the question. He couldn’t imagine the US government exhausting resources in looking for him any longer than necessary. 

               “But they won’t find you in this mountains.”  Eula whispered, uncharacteristically somber.  “What you just saw, that is your LEGACY Stark, your life’s work in the hands of those… those murderers!  Is that how you want to go out?” He asks.  Tony meet the man’s stare with his own.  His words were dripping with nothing but the truth.  But what can we he do?

               “Is this the last defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?”  Tony tore his eyes away from the man’s aged eyes and settled on Eula who was quiet as she held her dog tags with her hands. 

               “Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week.” Tony grumbled.

The older man looked at him before he leans back, the man spares Eula a look before he meets Tony’s.  “Well then, this is a very important week for you isn’t it?”

There must be something in the man’s words that sparked something in Tony’s.  Once again the man’s words snapped him away from the miasma of his own mind.  He is Tony Stark.  He isn’t someone who would just take death lying down.  Tony looked at Eula and stopped.  A warm feeling washed over him and settled in his gut when he saw Eula smiling at him.

 

...

 

Brown eyes watched the armed men hustle and bustle inside their cell carrying materials that he had demanded.  If he was going to make them the Jericho, then he would need tools and equipment.  At the end of the day, Tony Stark is still human not some magician who could spell out missiles of mass destruction in a snap. 

                 “How many languages can you speak?” Tony asks, his eyes looking at his two companions. 

Eula pursed her lips in thought.  “English obviously, a bit of Italian and conversational Filipino.”  She looked at him with her big bright eyes looking all proud and all.  Tony smiled and turned to the other who only gave him a vague answer. 

 

...

 

                 “Who are these people?”

                 “They call themselves the Ten Rings. They are your loyal customers.” Tony narrows his eyes at the man’s answer.  What does he mean by that?

                 “Bullshit.  They can call themselves whatever they want. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are murderers.”  Eula snorts, her tone dripping with acid as she looked at Tony with the same intensity as when their eyes first met. 

 

 ...

 

                 “You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process don’t you think so?” Tony looked at the man and then to Eula who only shrugged.

                 “Don’t look at me.  I don’t have any idea about engineering or anything.  Doctor remember?” Eula grins, her tone light.  Tony only shook his head, as he pulled away yet another part from an outdated missile. 

Tony looked at the small metallic chip that he had just pulled from another missile.  He glanced at Eula and the man with a look on concentration on his face.

                 “This is palladium, 0.15 grams. I need at least 1.6 so why don’t you two go and break down the other 11?”  Tony tilts his head to the side.  The two didn’t need to get told twice before they were head to head in breaking down the other missile just like how he had done it.

                 “Careful.  Careful. We only get one shot at this.”  Tony mumbles as he follows Eula as she carries the melted palladium with a pair of tongs.  Eula slowed and quirked an eyebrow at him.  “Relax.  I got steady hands.  Why do you think you’re still alive?”  Well she’s got a point. 

Tony watched as she carefully pass the tongs to the man who then slowly pours the metal onto the waiting mold. 

                 “So what do I call you?”  Tony asked, not looking at the man. 

                 “My name is Yinsen.” Yinsen smiles, glancing at the genius for a brief second.

                 “Yinsen. Nice to meet you.”  Tony nods. 

Eula’s chime like laughter brought the two male out of their concentration and Tony looked at her both brows raised in questioning.  “Finally! I thought you wouldn’t ask the poor man his name.  If I know, you’ve been calling Yinsen ‘the man’ inside your head from the start.” Tony blinks at the woman's grinning face before shaking his head, a small chuckle echoing from his lips.

Well she’s not wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing about Eula, she's a walking ball of positivity. She doesn't let her circumstances put a damper into her mood. But that doesn't mean she's not dealing with her own demons, she just deals with it in a different way and out of people's eyes.
> 
> I like to think that Eula is a character that has many layers. I admit, I am figuring out Eula as I go write down the next chapters and I hope that I would be able to portray her this grounded person who has her fair share of faults just like how I envisioned her to be. 
> 
> Anyways, I do hope that I managed to do an acceptable job at writing Tony. Gosh, I was rewatching the first Ironman movie while writing this chapter and I am just full of nostalgia right now. But still... I do hope I did okay!
> 
> THANK YOU VERY MUCH everyone! I was very happy to see that people read and liked this story enough to leave their comment! It really gave me the push to try and push out this chapter faster. JUST THANK YOU! IT MEANS A LOT!

**Author's Note:**

> Well that's that. What do you think?


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